Landfall

The Stars Like Sand

The Stars Like Sand: Australian Speculative Poetry is a well-reviewed 2014 anthology of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror poetry that I co-edited with P. S. Cottier. You can buy The Stars Like Sand from Amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle ebook.

Men Briefly Explained

Men Briefly Explained is my 2011 poetry collection that explains men, briefly. You can buy Men Briefly Explained from Amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle ebook.

My Library from LibraryThing

About Me

I'm a writer, editor, anthologist, and now blogger who was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England and moved to New Zealand with my family when I was 2.
I grew up on the West Coast and in Southland, then went to Dunedin to go to Otago University before moving to Wellington in 1993. I'm married with one child.
I'm juggling the writing of poetry, short fiction and novels, working part time, trying to be a good husband and father, and working hard to get New Zealand to take effective action on climate change - not to mention all the other problems the world faces. Life is busy!

08 September 2016

Saving Christchurch's Notable Trees

Tim says: Christchurch has been through an awful lot since the September 2010 and February 2011 earthquakes. I don't think Christchurch residents should be deprived of their much-admired heritage of notable trees on top of all that. If you agree, please donate to help save those trees, as Rebekah Lynch outlines below.

My name is
Rebekah Lynch and I
am part of a group of citizens who care about Christchurch's
unique landscape
character, which is defined by its legacy of urban trees. We
really need your
help to support the continued protection of some of
Christchurch's most significant
trees – 80% of which have been proposed for delisting from
Council's register,
which means they can be felled "as of right".

In particular,
we need help to
cover the expert and legal expenses that we have had no choice
but to incur, in
order to speak for the trees through the Court-style Plan
hearings being
fast-tracked under the emergency earthquake legislation.

Why We Need
Your Help

What has made
this process
particularly difficult for ordinary people like ourselves is
that we have had
to go through not one but an unprecedented two hearings, which
effectively
doubled our costs. Our costs were further increased when
Council reneged on a mediated
agreement that would have seen 56% of the listed trees return
to Council's
register.

As you can
imagine, the second
hearing and Council's subsequent action presented an almost
impossible hurdle
for individual submitters and small Trusts to overcome in
order to speak for a
public good – and to have any hope of being heard in a
Court-style process
where outcomes are being determined by expert evidence and
legal submission.

Here are some links
to articles that
chart the Christchurch tree situation and our campaign:

All donations
are tax
deductible and will be receipted. All funds will be used
solely to meet the
expert and legal costs of the tree campaign to date and to
review the Hearing decisions
once they are made.

Social
Media and Spreading the Word

You can also help
by:

linking
directly
to our Give A Little fundraiser on your own social
media pages
and/or your blog or website – simply cut and paste in the Give
a Little link
above; andalso

encouraging
others to do the same by also liking and sharing the link.

We would
deeply appreciate our
cause being shared with other individuals, organisations,
groups, or businesses
that you believe may care about the fate of Christchurch's
Heritage and Notable
trees. We believe this will assist us greatly.